Just like how we don't have voodoo in Jamaica, but people figure if it is good enough for one island we probably all do it.

Huh. Really? I know enough to know that voodoo and Santeria are different; I think of voodoo as Hispaniola-based, and Santeria as, um, Brazilian-y, but I do admit that in my land-locked mind, I think Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba and St. Croix are all neighbors, like Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa.

The ocean is weird. Nice, but it's like the moon to me.

I guess, though, if I was thinking Jamaica and religion, I wouldn't think "voodoo," I would think "Christian and Rastafarian." And then I would think of coffee, beaches, plantains and reggae. I wouldn't rule out, mentally, voudoun practioners in Jamaica, though.

Obeah. That's the closest equivalent we have to voudoun we have in Jamaica. But it's not at all similar. It's just our diasporic magic. But you'll see Jamaican voodoo show up in pop culture (thank you Steven Seagal) and people's assumptions all the time. Fucking irritating. Making the characters Haitian would have required a whole different accent, and lord knows the Caribbean only has the one.

Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba and St. Croix are all neighbors, like Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa

You're dealing with three different primary colonisers among four countries there. Their relative proximities are nigh irrelevant, considering. I don't know crap about Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Iowa, but I don't think the neighbouriness counts for much.

I've heard the term obeah before, but not known was it was. I've read a bunch of hist fiction featuring Hispaniola, but not the other. I know the Dutch are in there somewhere.

Okay, now I'm all curious and will have to look shit up. Awesome!

I get the NZ defensiveness too, for the same reason.

Yeah, that's fair. And occasionally pretty amusing.

I've known both Aussies and Kiwis, and it's so amusing to listen to them talk smack about each other.

Actually, I've been telling anyone who asks that I'm from Los Angeles, which everybody thinks is awesome. And I don't really think Starbucks guy is a jerkhole (I was exaggerating my reaction, shocking, I know).

More than anything, I was amused because I'm spending all my time here listing to people to try and figure out which language to say hello in, while this guy was listening not jut for English, but for a USian accent.

I mean, I guess you're home accent pops in a foreign country, but it's not what I'm listening for. The English that catches my ears is the non-USian English. There was a very lovely (and really funny) Aussie couple behind us at the concerto last night.

Making the characters Haitian would have required a whole different accent, and lord knows the Caribbean only has the one.

Heh. I'm doing a sound design for a show called Three Sisters After Chekhov, which is Three Sisters set in Trinidad in 1941. There has been much work and discussion about the wide variations in west indies/carib accents, and making sure we get the Trinidad accents right.

It opens a week after the 4th. Let me know if you'd like to come see it, ita (or any other LAista, for that matter).

I'm so glad a mutual friend called to wish D a happy birthday. I had totally spaced it. I scraped together enough earth monies to spring for sushi and Iron Man II & he had a happy birthday afterall.

More and more people are starting to think I'm American from my accent. It, um, annoys me. Not as much as people thinking I'm English, but still. I'm from a tiny country! Gotta represent!

I'm loving the foreign foods discussion, because American food is my foreign food. Every time we go over I try to eat new foods I haven't had before. Usually it's chains that I've heard about on tv. I still haven't had a twinkie (Greg won't let me, as he says that he's never had one so it's not actually part of the American experience). I also still haven't had Outback, which always has dishes on that 'worst foods' list so I'd like to go there. Most of the actual food I've eaten over there is Boston specific, so lots of lobster and steamers and clam chowder. Also pumpkin pie. I don't eat red meat so burgers are out, unfortunately. Maybe one day I'll try one anyway.

Candy corn is probably the most disappointing of all the things I've eaten.

I don't eat red meat so burgers are out, unfortunately. Maybe one day I'll try one anyway.

There are turkey burgers and veggie burgers. For the most part these items are merely excuses for transporting condiments such as ketchup and mustard to one's mouth. I am capable of making a turkey burger such that I would be willing to offer it to you as representative of the joy that is American burgers, but I haven't run across any in a restaurant that I would trust as anything better than a hockey puck. You might have better luck with veggie burgers, but I'm not sure.

Computer remains dead. Computer fixit chappie couldn't get any data off the hard disk because I don't have a desktop to put the HD in. Waiting on a reboot CD in the post and very much hoping my backups include my EndNote library. It's going to be weeks of copying and pasting from documents if they don't, and still stuff will be missing. Wah.

I'm loving the foreign foods discussion, because American food is my foreign food.

I have a very tragic addiction to Kraft Mac & Cheese, from when I spent a year in the States. The Girl brings about fifteen packets of it back every time she goes to visit family in Houston. I have two packets left from her last trip. I should make them last, but I'll probably eat them both in one evening.

Hey Jars, weren't we going to have a tiny London F2F? Will drop you an e-mail.

I haven't run across any in a restaurant that I would trust as anything better than a hockey puck. You might have better luck with veggie burgers, but I'm not sure.

This is my problem! I've tried! I think American restaurants are just so very sure about their beef burgers that they don't feel the need to put much effort into any other kind. I would totally eat your turkey burger, though. And not even in a euphemistic sense!

I have a very tragic addiction to Kraft Mac & Cheese

I tried it and it just tasted like chemicals to me! And fake cheese flavour is basically my favourite flavour. Maybe I got a bad batch.

Also, hells yeah for London f2f.

I recommend Chili's among American burger chains. Both they and Outback do remarkable things to onions. I'm especially fond of the fries at Chili's. They used to do superb vegetables too, with a balsamic glaze or something; but before I left they'd changedit to an insipid, watery offering, presumably as a cost-cutting exercise. 

I don't know if they're actually part of a chain, but there was a Belgian burger place in Philly called Monk's. Aside from an eight-page beer menu (including some beers that would set you back $70 or more), they did a heavenly bourbon mayonnaise that was like unto crack to me. 

Oh, and concerning Outback, although the understanding of Aussie slang embodied in their menu occasionally made me wince, I did not find their decor to be terminally mortifying.